North Bay man forced from flooded home, previous home lost in Tubbs Fire
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- A trending GoFundMe campaign titled "Building Scott his new home" has been shared several hundred times across the Internet. San Jose resident, Kartik Ravi created the campaign for his friend Scott Simpson.
Simpson is one of the thousands currently flooded out of his Sonoma County home. His heavily damaged Forestville home sits about a mile from the Russian River.
RELATED: Clean up and recovery efforts continue in Guerneville after catastrophic floods
"The structures are still standing in the new house," Simpson told ABC7 News. "The walls are good, but the whole inside-- it's going to need to be gutted."
Simpson emphasized the word "new," considering his previous home burned to the ground nearly a year and a half ago.
"My house was one of the homes that was in Coffey Park," he said.
Simpson explained he was out of town when the fire tore through. He had plans to return home a few days after the devastation.
"Came home to nothing," he said. "Except the backpack I had on my shoulders."
Back when the Tubbs Fire took out parts of Napa, Sonoma, and Lake counties, Simpson was renting.
Nearly a year and a half has gone by since.
On Feb. 4, he said the family closed Escrow. They moved into their newly renovated Forestville home on Sunday the 24th. The Russian River reached flood stage on the 26th.
RELATED: Sonoma County begins flood recovery after massive storm
"So, two days in the home and basically everything was destroyed," Simpson explained.
"We had to leave the house around 9 p.m. because the water level was getting too high," he said. "By the next morning, our house had taken on four feet of water."
Simpson's bad luck is now being met with good intention.
Friends from Simpson's rock climbing community are coming together to be a rock for him and his seven-year-old daughter.
"I feel for her so much," he said. "It's just so much change in the past year and a half."
The GoFundMe campaign is meant to help the Simpson's after this second major disaster.
"For me, I'm here by myself. My family's back home in India," campaign creator, Kartik Ravi told ABC7 News. "And Scott's like family to me."
Watching the devastation from a distance has been difficult for Ravi.
"Scott's just now one person, but if you see it as a whole community, it's affecting the whole community and schools, public transportation, everything is being damaged," Ravi said.
Even with his spirit intact, Simpson admits it has been tough.
RELATED: Sonoma County estimates $155M in flood damages after massive storm
"I see a lot of crying, I see a lot of sadness out there," Simpson said. "People are hurting."
Moving forward, Simpson's plans involve eventually fixing up the Forestville home.
"Having a seven-year-old daughter, those things kind of stood out to me," Simpson said. "The idea of us just walking down to the river in the summer."
